Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Reaches New 52-Week High After Analyst Upgrade

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) shares reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday after Evercore raised their price target on the stock to $410.00. Evercore currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Western Digital traded as high as $380.65 and last traded at $368.9840, with a volume of 957306 shares. The stock had previously closed at $372.52.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on WDC. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Western Digital from $375.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Citigroup raised their price objective on Western Digital to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Zacks Research downgraded Western Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective on shares of Western Digital in a report on Monday, February 9th. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $305.63.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Matthew E. Massengill sold 36,926 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.43, for a total value of $9,616,638.18. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Cynthia L. Tregillis sold 9,324 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.27, for a total value of $2,501,349.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 121,682 shares in the company, valued at $32,643,630.14. This represents a 7.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 92,795 shares of company stock valued at $24,265,884. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

More Western Digital News

Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Evercore raised its price target to $410 and reiterated an “outperform” rating, signaling bullish analyst conviction and providing near-term upside for the stock. Evercore price target raise
• Positive Sentiment: A separate price-target increase to $415 was published, adding more analyst support that can help sustain the rally. Price Target Raised to $415
• Positive Sentiment: Top analysts have been boosting targets ahead of earnings, reflecting confidence in WDC’s exposure to HDD/SSD demand from cloud hyperscalers and AI workloads. TipRanks analyst boost
• Positive Sentiment: News coverage highlights that increased investment from hyperscalers and growing data volumes are driving demand for Western Digital’s storage products, supporting revenue and margin outlooks. Hyperscaler investment article
• Positive Sentiment: Sector commentary expects data-center/AI-related parts (including WDC products) to continue rallying as AI deployments expand, which could sustain investor appetite for the stock. FXEmpire AI parts forecast
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and consumer-focused pieces are debating whether WDC at current levels should be a watch-list buy — interest is high, but some investors are waiting for clearer post-earnings guidance. Watch list article
• Negative Sentiment: Several articles flag a trade-off: Western Digital’s cash flow has improved due to AI-driven demand, but elevated debt raises questions about financial flexibility and growth funding — a risk that could cap the multiple if leverage isn’t reduced. Yahoo cash flow vs leverage Zacks cash flow vs leverage

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 58.4% in the 1st quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 47,387 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $12,818,000 after acquiring an additional 17,471 shares during the period. Friedenthal Financial purchased a new position in shares of Western Digital in the 1st quarter valued at $1,081,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Western Digital by 193.5% during the 1st quarter. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC now owns 270 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $73,000 after buying an additional 178 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in Western Digital by 78.5% during the 1st quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,330 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $630,000 after buying an additional 1,025 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Western Digital by 29.5% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,389 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $917,000 after buying an additional 772 shares during the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Western Digital Trading Up 0.4%

The company has a 50 day moving average of $294.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $218.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $126.84 billion, a PE ratio of 37.52, a P/E/G ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.77.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a return on equity of 41.53% and a net margin of 35.52%.The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.77 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 8.47 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is 5.02%.

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation is a global data storage company that designs, manufactures and sells a broad range of storage devices and systems for personal, enterprise and cloud applications. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company develops hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), NAND flash components and finished storage products used in PCs, external storage, servers, network-attached storage (NAS) and embedded systems.

Its product portfolio spans consumer and commercial markets, including internal and external HDDs and SSDs, removable flash memory products and storage platforms for data center and enterprise environments.